Cooling of engine lubricant can improve engine fuel efficiency and reduce degradation of the lubricant. Degraded lubricant can not only increase friction and thus reduce fuel economy, but it can also lead to increased engine wear and component degradation.
Oil coolers may be used to cool engine oil, but require increased packaging space. Moreover, various routing lines may be needed to fluidly couple the lubrication circuit to the oil cooler, increasing the difficulty of oil cooler installation and assembly. These factors can result in increased cost and overall engine size.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,062 discloses an oil cooler positioned in a valley between two cylinder banks in an engine. The Inventors have recognized several drawbacks with the oil cooler configuration in U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,062. Due to the flow configuration of the oil and coolant in the cooler, the heat transfer between coolant passage and the oil passages may be insufficient to cool the oil to a desired operating temperature during high load conditions. Specifically, the separation between the coolant channel and the oil channel may reduce the cooler effectiveness in removing heat from the oil. Furthermore, the relatively short length of the adjoining oil passages and coolant passages may be insufficient to provide a desired amount of cooling during engine operation, and may provide uneven cooling to the oil flowing through the oil gallery, thus leading to oil degradation.
In one approach, an assembly is provided to address at least some of the above issues. The assembly a cylinder block and a cooler coupled to the cylinder block positioned in a valley between two cylinder banks, the cooler including a lubricant passage having a first section configured to flow lubricant in an opposing direction to the flow of lubricant through a second section, the first and second sections each extending longitudinally from a first peripheral cylinder to a second peripheral cylinder in one of the cylinder banks.1. In this way, the oil cooler may provide increased cooling via the counter-flow routing of coolant and oil channels through the oil cooler, while enabling reduced packaging space and easier engine assembly. For example, in one embodiment the second section of the lubricant passage may be positioned directly above the first section of the lubricant passage, increasing the compactness of the oil cooler.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.